To Intensify an Experience, Bring a Friend

Pacific Standard:

It happens all the time: You call a friend and make a date to go out to a movie. Then the two of you sit together in silence as you both keep your eyes on the screen. With interpersonal interaction at that minimal level, what was the point of getting together, anyway?

A paper just published in the journal Psychological Science provides an answer. It finds shared experiences are more intense, even when two people aren’t actually communicating. This holds true for both positive and negative experiences, according to a research team led by Yale University psychologist Erica Boothby. So a film’s bad dialogue is actually more painful if your buddy is by your side.

“Lives unfold socially, but often silently,” the researchers write. “Yet even in silence, people often share experiences, and the mental space inhabited together is a place where good experiences get better, and bad experiences get worse.”

Read the whole story: Pacific Standard